JEL
Well-known member
My son’s boy Ridge
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Gratuitous Bird and Dog Photos
- Thread starter MTLabrador
- Start date
Usually a 4-8 hour hunt.
Miles walked varies from 4-10, elevation gain is usually 2-4K feet.
Normal day is 6-10 coveys, usually 10-15 birds per covey.
Average day is 3-4 birds, best day is 8.
A good shooting day is 60-70%. Chukars are hard to hit. They are fast and footing sucks.
Typically they hold well for a pointing dog, but this can vary with weather and if they are feeding in open saddles.
I bet we put up well over 100 birds yesterday. Very few of those were within gun range. Some I could only hear flushing in the fog.
Hunting chukars with a lab is difficult. Your shots won’t be great unless your dog works close all the time. Also, their feet typically don’t hold up very well.
Irrelevant
Well-known member
I will second much of that^
I keep my hunts to 1/2 day, home by noonish. only hike 2.5-5 miles, 1-2.5k vert., flocks vary in size from 3 to 30, 5-10 being typical until later in the year when they can really congregate. On a good day in a good location, I'll bump into 4-8 coveys, some may be repeats, bad day is zero (but that's pretty rare). I find they're willingness to hold is based on veg cover, snow cover, and proximity to rocks/steep terrain, and approach. They don't like to hold well in very thin cover, or on crusted snow, nor when you catch them away from steep rocky terrain, nor when you approach from below them. There are exceptions to all of that, but those are the trends I've seen. Footing is almost always terrible. I actually got into a couple of pheasants the other week, close to the truck, and was floored how much easier they are to hit, between the good footing, the large bodies, and the predictable and slow flight (in comparison) they were simple easy shots to make. Last weekend on the first covey of chukars, I shot twice from my ass while actively sliding down a chute towards some cliffs... and predictably missed both.
I keep my hunts to 1/2 day, home by noonish. only hike 2.5-5 miles, 1-2.5k vert., flocks vary in size from 3 to 30, 5-10 being typical until later in the year when they can really congregate. On a good day in a good location, I'll bump into 4-8 coveys, some may be repeats, bad day is zero (but that's pretty rare). I find they're willingness to hold is based on veg cover, snow cover, and proximity to rocks/steep terrain, and approach. They don't like to hold well in very thin cover, or on crusted snow, nor when you catch them away from steep rocky terrain, nor when you approach from below them. There are exceptions to all of that, but those are the trends I've seen. Footing is almost always terrible. I actually got into a couple of pheasants the other week, close to the truck, and was floored how much easier they are to hit, between the good footing, the large bodies, and the predictable and slow flight (in comparison) they were simple easy shots to make. Last weekend on the first covey of chukars, I shot twice from my ass while actively sliding down a chute towards some cliffs... and predictably missed both.
midwesterncrosshair
Well-known member
Some edits from this past weekend in SoDak
That looks like the most cattail-poundingest group of dogs I’ve ever seen!
midwesterncrosshair
Well-known member
They were a great group of dogs. It will probably be two dogs last hunt. They we’re struggling and it was hard to see but they we’re still happy to be with us. We will miss em if they don’t make it next year.
OntarioHunter
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- Joined
- Sep 11, 2020
- Messages
- 5,980
My season is over and back in Ontario. I had my Lab Ellie in to the vet yesterday (Minnesota as no vet available here now). She was having trouble with both right legs the last couple weeks we were hunting in Montana. She seems to be finally recovered but had her checked anyway as my daughter's Lab pup needed to go in for her last shots. Vet was formerly established on SD border and saw up to 1500 hunting dogs a year. "Gad, your dog is in beautiful condition! I rarely see Labs looking like this." Well, she's put on five pounds since we got back. He'd have been shocked to see what she looked like a week ago. Ellie checked out okay. Thankfully no ACL issues. "I guess you probably just hunted her too hard." Not every day a seventy year-old guy can wear out a long-legged seven year-old Lab in super fit condition.
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Mica Man
Well-known member
Another good shoot with my brother. 
Went back up for our second 5-day split in SD last weekend. Lots of birds, lots of point/reposition/points, lots of wild flushes and lots of inches-away points in the cattails. Didn’t get stuck on any min maintenance roads so that was a win, also. SD never ceases to amaze. We see more birds in 2.5 days up there than we will see in 3 years in Colorado.
Pre-drive home Sunday walk in one slough:
Ditch walk retrieve through a fence (which is not my Brit’s forte. Was a proud papa)
A very icy Pudelpointer defrosting in the back seat.
Pre-drive home Sunday walk in one slough:
Ditch walk retrieve through a fence (which is not my Brit’s forte. Was a proud papa)
A very icy Pudelpointer defrosting in the back seat.
300stw
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- Joined
- Jul 6, 2008
- Messages
- 862
heres the next generation of fancy, good running wirehairs, some of these pups should have some wheels,,,
Don Fischer
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- Joined
- Jun 27, 2017
- Messages
- 3,141
Snicker. I have his mom and dad.
You shooting those turkeys in the same way as pheasants? I mean, is your dog sniffing them out and you're wing shooting them? Normal pheasant loads? Do you target them or are they just a bonus on your pheasant hunt?
I also know some people use dogs to bust up fall flocks and then they hunker down and call as the flock tries to reconnect with each other. Just curious... I don't see a lot of mixed bag pics with turkeys and pheasants.
exponentialpi
Active member
Mica Man
Well-known member
The turkeys are a bonus during our pheasant hunt. We typically run into them when pushing through brushy draws or small timber patches looking for pheasants.
The dogs disperse the flocks pretty good and things can get exciting when 15-20 uncoordinated B-52 bombers jump up to take flight.
Sometimes we shoot them on the wing, out of a tree, or ground sluce them. It is pretty cool after having the flock broken up to have a turkey hold in a brush clump like a pheasant and have your dog point it.
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Mica Man
Well-known member
More disco chickens and a bonus hun on a hunt with a buddy yesterday. 
44hunter45
Well-known member
I wish you would invite me along, but I would have to see your Red Cross CPR card first. Nothing like the steep.
midwesterncrosshair
Well-known member
Do you breed his mom and dad yet?Snicker. I have his mom and dad.
